I have long been a passive viewer of this forum, as it contains a lot of information relevant to my family's situation. I have also noticed that some people post questions and then fail to follow up with their experiences, so I am here to do the reverse - having leached information from the website here is our experience:
Our details:
Me - British citizen and passport holder.
Wife - Peruvian citizen.
In March 2015 we moved to the Málaga area of Spain to live, not because we were planning on following the Surinder Singh route into the UK, just because we liked the idea of living in Spain. We rented a house and I registered with the Spanish tax authorities and social security as a freelancer to run my location-independent business through the Spanish system. I speak fluent Spanish, so had no real problems registering at the police station as a resident EU citizen, and my wife's application for an Article 10 residency card as a non-EEA family member of an EEA citizen was fairly straightforward and took a couple of months.
We decided to visit the UK for a few days for my father's birthday, about 7 months after arrival in Spain. Decided not to apply for an EEA family permit, as this website https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... dence-card seemed to make it clear that it was not necessary.
23/10/15 - Got on a British Airways flight from Málaga to London Gatwick. No problem whatsoever at check-in, straight through security and onto the plane. At border control at London Gatwick, the immigration officer flipped through my wife's passport, noted that all her previous UK visas were out of date and stated that she wouldn't be able to enter the UK. After I politely explained that as a holder of an Article 10 residency card she does indeed have a right to enter, the officer went to talk to the Chief Immigration Officer. He came back after a couple of minutes with an ink pad and a stamp and stated that my wife can enter on an Article 10 residency card if I an exercising treaty rights. He then asked me if I was exercising my treaty rights and I stated that I was, and that I had documentation with me to demonstrate this. He said that would not be necessary, stamped my wife's passport with a stamp stating "Admitted to the United Kingdom under the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006 for six months".
The officer then made a comment about how EEA regulations mean that the UK isn't able to properly control is borders, to which I replied that I didn't believe it to be unreasonable for a UK citizen to want travel to the UK for a few days with his non-EEA wife to attend his father's birthday party.
I hope that the details of our experience help someone else trying to navigate their way through the complex rules and regulations.
- FAQ
- Login
- Register
- Call Workpermit.com for a paid service +44 (0)344-991-9222
